Winners 2018/Software & Computer ServicesGold

Project: FairITales

Client: Advanced

Advanced was growing fast. It was their huge potential that made Vista Partners buy them back in 2014. But with new ownership came new aggressive targets: and the aim to become a centre-of-excellence.

This ambition led to a new proposition: ‘right-first-time solutions’. It had the opportunity to win over lots of CEOs and managers as it promised to fix all the irritations they had with IT, but Advanced needed a strong creative campaign to get the message across.

Taking a chance in order to achieve greater recall, the campaign was given a humorous twist, telling the story through four fairy tales. Each one proposed a common problem, before Advanced saved the day by fixing it, delivering a ‘happy ever after’.

It was a risky strategy, given that they were talking to CEOs, directors and managers, but it worked. The campaign is still on-going, but the results are already impressive. Waves one, two and three have already generated a substantial sales pipeline in excess of £3.9 million (against a target of £1 million), delivering 771% return on investment.